The Old Water Mill Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AAAABBAAAACCDDEEFFAA GHDDAAADDIII DDJJAADDAAABBBKKKK DDLLLDDMMDD DDNNOLPPQQRRSSTTUU AAAAUUUUDDVVAAAAUUWW W UUKKXXKKQQWKDDUUAAKK DD YYZZBBDDDDDDAAD ADDDDDA2A2AA

Wild ridge on ridge the wooded hills ariseA
Between whose breezy vistas gulfs of skiesA
Pilot great clouds like towering argosiesA
And hawk and buzzard breast the azure breezeA
With many a foaming fall and glimmering reachB
Of placid murmur under elm and beechB
The creek goes twinkling through long gleams and gloomsA
Of woodland quiet summered with perfumesA
The creek in whose clear shallows minnow schoolsA
Glitter or dart and by whose deeper poolsA
The blue kingfishers and the herons hauntC
That often startled from the freckled flauntC
Of blackberry lilies where they feed or hideD
Trail a lank flight along the forestsideD
With eery clangor Here a sycamoreE
Smooth wave uprooted builds from shore to shoreE
A headlong bridge and there a storm hurled oakF
Lays a long dam where sand and gravel chokeF
The water's lazy way Here mistflower blursA
Its bit of heaven there the ox eye stirsA
Its gloaming hues of pearl and gold and hereG
A gray cool stain like dawn's own atmosphereH
The dim wild carrot lifts its crumpled crestD
And over all at slender flight or restD
The dragonflies like coruscating raysA
Of lapis lazuli and chrysopraseA
Drowsily sparkle through the summer daysA
And dewlap deep here from the noontide heatD
The bell hung cattle find a cool retreatD
And through the willows girdling the hillI
Now far now near borne as the soft winds willI
Comes the low rushing of the water millI
-
Ah lovely to me from a little childD
How changed the place wherein once undefiledD
The glad communion of the sky and streamJ
Went with me like a presence and a dreamJ
Where once the brambled meads and orchardlandsA
Poured ripe abundance down with mellow handsA
Of summer and the birds of field and woodD
Called to me in a tongue I understoodD
And in the tangles of the old rail fenceA
Even the insect tumult had some senseA
And every sound a happy eloquenceA
And more to me than wisest books can teachB
The wind and water said whose words did reachB
My soul addressing their magnificent speechB
Raucous and rushing from the old mill wheelK
That made the rolling mill cogs snore and reelK
Like some old ogre in a faerytaleK
Nodding above his meat and mug of aleK
-
How memory takes me back the ways that leadD
As when a boy through woodland and through meadD
To orchards fruited or to fields in bloomL
Or briery fallows like a mighty roomL
Through which the winds swing censers of perfumeL
And where deep blackberries spread miles of fruitD
A wildwood feast that stayed the plowboy's footD
When to the tasseling acres of the cornM
He drove his team fresh in the primrose mornM
And from the liberal banquet nature lentD
Plucked dewy handfuls as he whistling wentD
-
A boy once more I stand with sunburnt feetD
And watch the harvester sweep down the wheatD
Or laze with warm limbs in the unstacked strawN
Near by the thresher whose insatiate mawN
Devours the sheaves hot drawling out its humO
Like some great sleepy bee above a bloomL
Made drunk with honey while grown big with grainP
The bulging sacks receive the golden rainP
Again I tread the valley sweet with hayQ
And hear the bobwhite calling far awayQ
Or wood dove cooing in the elder brakeR
Or see the sassafras bushes madly shakeR
As swift a rufous instant in the glenS
The red fox leaps and gallops to his denS
Or standing in the violet colored gloamT
Hear roadways sound with holiday riding homeT
From church or fair or country barbecueU
Which half the county to some village drewU
-
How spilled with berries were its summer hillsA
And strewn with walnuts all its autumn rillsA
And chestnuts too burred from the spring's long flowersA
June's when their tree tops streamed delirious showersA
Of blossoming silver cool crepuscularU
And like a nebulous radiance shone afarU
And maples how their sappy hearts would pourU
Rude troughs of syrup when the winter hoarU
Steamed with the sugar kettle day and nightD
And red the snow was streaked with firelightD
Then it was glorious the mill dam's edgeV
One slope of frosty crystal laid a ledgeV
Of pearl across above which sleeted treesA
Tossed arms of ice that clashing in the breezeA
Tinkled the ringing creek with iciclesA
Thin as the peal of far off elfin bellsA
A sound that in my city dreams I hearU
That brings before me under skies that clearU
The old mill in its winter garb of snowW
Its frozen wheel like a hoar beard belowW
And its west windows two deep eyes aglowW
-
Ah ancient mill still do I picture o'erU
Thy cobwebbed stairs and loft and grain strewn floorU
Thy door like some brown honest hand of toilK
And honorable with service of the soilK
Forever open to which on his backX
The prosperous farmer bears his bursting sackX
And while the miller measures out his tollK
Again I hear above the cogs' loud rollK
That makes stout joist and rafter groan and swayQ
The harmless gossip of the passing dayQ
Good country talk that says how so and soW
Lived died or wedded how curculioK
And codling moth play havoc with the fruitD
Smut ruins the corn and blight the grapes to bootD
Or what is news from town next county fairU
How well the crops are looking everywhereU
Now this now that on which their interests fixA
Prospects for rain or frost and politicsA
While all around the sweet smell of the mealK
Filters warm pouring from the rolling wheelK
Into the bin beside which mealy whiteD
The miller looms dim in the dusty lightD
-
Again I see the miller's home betweenY
The crinkling creek and hills of beechen greenY
Again the miller greets me gaunt and brownZ
Who oft o'erawed my boyhood with his frownZ
And gray browed mien again he tries to reachB
My youthful soul with fervid scriptural speechB
For he of all the countryside confessedD
The most religious was and goodliestD
A Methodist who at all meetings ledD
Prayed with his family ere they went to bedD
No books except the Bible had he readD
At least so seemed it to my younger headD
All things of Heaven and Earth he'd prove by thisA
Be it a fact or mere hypothesisA
For to his simple wisdom reverentD
-
'The Bible says'A
was all of argumentD
God keep his soul his bones were long since laidD
Among the sunken gravestones in the shadeD
Of those dark lichened rocks that wall aroundD
The family burying ground with cedars crownedD
Where bristling teasel and the brier combineA2
With clambering wood rose and the wildgrape vineA2
To hide the stone whereon his name and datesA
Neglect with mossy hand obliteratesA

Madison Julius Cawein



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